“

Have you mastered the Riposte? I prefer it over Parry. We should spar some time, I'll show you the move.

“

It's not an obsession. I mean I can stop any time I want to. I just love the taste of pork products. Actually just about any meat is great. But especially pork.

“

I taught myself swordsmanship by killing pigs. I guess the fascination with pigs grew from that.

“

Yep, I was there when Dwyndarre burned. I... don't really want to talk about it.

“

Did you hear the humans want to collect taxes from us? Tax! Just for running a shop! That's absurd. There's barely any security here, so what would I be paying for? If you want to collect tax, you'd better... sorry. Council customs make me a little upset.

“

Business isn't exactly booming out here. But there's enough wanderers stopping by to make it worth the trouble.

“

Alchemy and shopkeeping go hand and hand. I mean, you gotta buy the ingredients, and sell the results, so it just fits.

“

I heard Mushroom Jack has invented a delicious meat substitute out of mushrooms. He won't share, though. Says it's not perfected yet.

“

Busy busy busy! I'm in this store practically all the time, either making stuff or selling stuff. But it's not like there's a lot of entertainment in this dive, so I'm not exactly missing out on anything.

“

Now I may not be a human, but I think I do pretty well at this shop-keeping business anyway.

“

There was a second engineer with me originally. Lady Rasheen. She died after exploring a nearby room. She said a lich with the mind of a child was stealing her memories. She died slowly, horribly.

“

Those little dinosaurs can rend flesh at an insane rate! But they have a hard time clawing through armor.

“

Have you seen those dinosaurs down here? Yeah, that... uh... that was a council corps error. We portalled 'em in from hundreds of miles away! They can't hurt you much if you're wearing enough armor.

“

I keep the place mostly safe with my runes and sigils. Was never really good with a sword, but I'm great at the lost art of sigil-scripting.

“

The Winter Court will never stop sending killers after us. They can just revive and return a few days after we kill them. Whereas if *we* die, we'll reappear in the fae realm and be tortured for 20,000 years...

“

When we realized thousands of fae had fled into this dimension, our queen sent a task force to build a city here. I'm part of that task force. We didn't do so great of a job. But we haven't given up!

“

There's more to life than delicious drinks, sure. But I haven't found any Fairy Felt in this dimension yet. So I make do.

“

The fruits here aren't like the fruits back home! They're pretty good, though. I've been inventing new fruit drinks.

“

Fairies are smaller than humans, so you might think the best plan of attack is with very long weapons. But not so! Small weapons like daggers let us use our speed to full advantage.

“

I nearly died getting out of the fairy realm. Preta saved me when my wing was mangled. But I dropped my beloved knife. I made this replacement, but it's not the same.

“

I kind of like the manual labor part of writing books. I've never done this before, I've always just dictated. It's kind of fun!

“

I ran a small library in the fae realm. It cataloged the power words of each epoch. But here in this world, words of power come and go almost instantly. You can't use any word more than once! How strange.

“

I am the master of mind over matter. Or at least I thought I was, before becoming a druid.

“

Everyone's better than me at growing plants. It's infuriating! I *will* grow this tree! Grow, damn you!

“

Among orcs I am feared and respected for my psychic powers. But among druids I seem ... merely adequate. These elven druids can teach me much about control. It's a pity they're so annoying.

“

I've fought many ranalon in my time and I am confident that we can eventually run them out of Sun Vale. These winter court fairies, however... we can certainly defeat them, but they return to life quite quickly. That's proving to be a difficult challenge.

“

I've been mastering a new bird form -- a cormorant. The raven form is fast, but not so great on open ocean. Haven't quite got it working yet, though.

“

We've yet to see tremendous benefits from our relationship with the summer court. But we don't do good deeds in hope of getting something back! We helped them so that they harm nature as little as possible with their presence.

“

We druids have been here for several years, but until a few months ago our camp was further south. The fairies are so concerned about their safety that they asked us to move our camp closer.

“

The fishing's pretty good out here. I mean, I've seen better but no complaints. There's amberjack out there long as my arm.

“

Been a Druid for nearly thirty years. Which is a long time for a human! I still work as hard as any of them elves, but between jobs I gotta take weight off the old feet.

“

Used ta be pretty great with the bow, but this old body don't cooperate too well anymore.

But my doe form's still limber and deadly, so I fight deer-style nowadays.

“

Seems like every year my old joints ache a little more. Pretty soon I'll have to take up animal form full-time just to keep up the pace. That's why I'm working on a pelican form. It's a good fishing bird!

“

They call me Squidlips 'cuz I love ta fish. And... well, I guess I've never been a looker!

“

I just need a little bit of pineal juice to keep me going through the night. I have so much to do!

“

When we realized thousands of fae had fled into this dimension, our queen sent a task force to help them build a city. I'm part of that task force. We didn't do so great of a job.

“

It's just really hard to get motivated when you don't remember what you're supposed to care about. I don't know how you manage to look so gung-ho all the time!

“

That's right, they said I was a general in some army! Sounds unlikely, huh? I do know a whole lot about military fortifications. But that could mean that I was a historian who studied old wars or something.

“

Want to see my puppet show? It's about two skeletons stuck on an island. I write what I know.

“

I'm not a big crabmeat fan. I mix it with oats because... hm, I guess I don't really know why I do that. I guess I'm not a great cook.

“

There was a second engineer with me originally. Lady Rasheen. She died after exploring a nearby room. She said a lich with the mind of a child was stealing her memories. She died slowly, horribly.

“

Those little dinosaurs can rend flesh at an insane rate! But they have a hard time clawing through armor.

“

Have you seen those dinosaurs down here? Yeah, that... uh... that was a council corps error. We portalled 'em in from hundreds of miles away! They can't hurt you much if you're wearing enough armor.

“

I keep the place mostly safe with my runes and sigils. Was never really good with a sword, but I'm great at the lost art of sigil-scripting.